Page:Jesuit Education.djvu/577

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THE MORAL SCOPE.
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covered and counteracted before the young are slaves of sin. The Catholic youth has all this advantage in the confession. What could an Arnold, a Thring, a McCosh do here? Indeed, does not this reserve of the Protestant system frustrate in many educators talent, zeal, kindliness, and keen-eyed affection, of their best fruits?

On the educational influence of the reception of the Holy Eucharist, a beautiful passage is found in the diary of the first American Cardinal, Archbishop McCloskey of New York, written when sojourning in Rome as a young priest. "Feast of St. Aloysius, Rome, June 21, 1835. This is the peculiar festivity of the students of Rome. It is observed with the greatest solemnity at the Church of the Roman College, S. Ignazio [under the care of the Jesuits]. Nearly all the students of the college, amounting to the number of 1500, receive Holy Communion together on this day. Being anxious to witness so interesting and edifying a spectacle, I took care to be at the Church of S. Ignazio at a seasonable hour. When I arrived, the students had just entered and had taken their places in ranks forming an aisle in the middle, and extending from the altar along the nave of the church to the very door. The Community Mass, a low one, was celebrated by a Cardinal, and the choir was composed of some of the choice singers among the pupils. It may have been owing to the numberless youthful associations that were connected with the scene before me, but I must confess it was to me the most edifying and most affecting ceremony I have yet witnessed in Rome. It was one which I shall never forget. To behold that spacious and beautiful edifice